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The Conversation USA

The Conversation USA

Moral panics intensify social divisions and can lead to political violence

  • Written by Ron Barrett, Professor of Anthropology, Macalester College

The day before Charlie Kirk was assassinated, I was teaching a college class on science, religion and magic. Our class was comparing the Salem witch trials of the 1690s with the McCarthy hearings of the early 1950s, when U.S. democratic processes were eclipsed by the Red Scare of purported communist infiltration.

The aim of the class was to...

Read more: Moral panics intensify social divisions and can lead to political violence

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